Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• an amide) and the enolizable position favored by the presence of an additional withdrawing group (phenylcarboxy). It was proposed that, after the cyclization, intermediate II follows a retro-Claisen fragmentation to give the final product by releasing

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• > secondary. Functional groups such as silyloxy, amides, ethers, esters, enolizable ketones, and nitriles were found to be compatible with this transformation. Late-stage functionalization of different molecules was demonstrated; for example, the azidation of ibuprofen occurred preferentially at the secondary

Stereoselective mechanochemical synthesis of thiomalonate Michael adducts via iminium catalysis by chiral primary amines

• Michał Błauciak,
• Dominika Andrzejczyk,
• Błażej Dziuk and
• Rafał Kowalczyk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2313–2322, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.198

• hour compared to 24 or even 168 hours in solution-based reactions. It is noteworthy that this represents one of the early reports on the application of iminium catalysis using first-generation chiral amines under mechanochemical conditions, along with the utilization of easily enolizable thioesters as

O,S,Se-containing Biginelli products based on cyclic β-ketosulfone and their postfunctionalization

• Kateryna V. Dil and
• Vitalii A. Palchykov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2143–2151, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.184

• original Biginelli reaction shown in Scheme 1A was significantly extended by variation of the 1,3-dicarbonyl-containing building blocks. Many groups have elegantly demonstrated the synthetic versatility of numerous enolizable carbonyl components, including β-keto esters, cyclic/acyclic β-diketones, β-keto

• never been used as enolizable carbonyl component in this chemistry. To the best of our knowledge only one compound from the target group was published (2003) [13] before this work, however, without any spectral evidence (Figure 1). Considering our constant interest in the development of methods for the

Synthetic applications of the Cannizzaro reaction

• Bhaskar Chatterjee,
• Dhananjoy Mondal and
• Smritilekha Bera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1376–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.120

• simplified form, focuses on the base-induced disproportionation of two molecules of a non-enolizable aromatic and/or aliphatic aldehyde (without an α-hydrogen atom). These aldehydes undergo in the presence of concentrated alkali or other strong bases, a simultaneous oxidation and reduction sequence of two

• Cannizzaro reaction has come across with subtle developments and changes in base modifications leading to compounds of potential interest [5][6]. The intermolecular Cannizzaro reaction is a chemical process in which two molecules of a non-enolizable aldehyde (2R1CHO) are disproportionated by a base to

• produce a carboxylic acid (R1CO2H) and a primary alcohol (R1CH2OH). When a mixture of formaldehyde (HCHO) and a non-enolizable aldehyde (R1CHO) is treated with a strong base, the latter is preferentially reduced to the alcohol (R1CH2OH) while formaldehyde is oxidized to formic acid (HCO2H). Herein excess

Oxidative hydrolysis of aliphatic bromoalkenes: scope study and reactivity insights

• Amol P. Jadhav and
• Claude Y. Legault

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1286–1291, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.111

• for the synthesis of dialkyl bromoketones would result in a mixture of regioisomers given the presence of enolizable protons on each side of the ketone (Scheme 1b). Recently Toy et al. have disclosed the selective synthesis of unsymmetrical α-haloketones by reductive halogenation of an α,β-unsaturated

Using the phospha-Michael reaction for making phosphonium phenolate zwitterions

• Matthias R. Steiner,
• Max Schmallegger,
• Larissa Donner,
• Johann A. Hlina,
• Christoph Marschner,
• Judith Baumgartner and
• Christian Slugovc

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 41–51, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.6

• intramolecular proton transfer and the methanol-mediated proton transfer, can occur. It has been described that intermediate B is more stable with enolizable electron-withdrawing groups such as esters [50] when compared to, e.g., a nitrile [49]. Accordingly, the intermolecular proton transfer pathway should be

Redox-active molecules as organocatalysts for selective oxidative transformations – an unperceived organocatalysis field

• Elena R. Lopat’eva,
• Igor B. Krylov,
• Dmitry A. Lapshin and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1672–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.179

• active oxidative agent. Asymmetric quaternary ammonium phase-transfer catalysts proved to be effective in the asymmetric nucleophilic epoxidation of electron-poor alkenes by hydroperoxides [70] and the asymmetric hydroxylation of enolizable carbonyl compounds employing O2 or H2O2 as terminal oxidants [71

Synthetic study toward the diterpenoid aberrarone

• Liang Shi,
• Zhiyu Gao,
• Yiqing Li,
• Yuanhao Dai,
• Yu Liu,
• Lili Shi and
• Hong-Dong Hao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1625–1628, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.173

• , including two all-carbon quaternary centers, together with the non-enolizable cyclic α-diketone moiety collectively render aberrarone as an attractive but challenging synthetic target. Its congener elisabanolide (2) with a lactone in the D ring shows their potential biosynthetic relationship [2]. These

Functionalization of imidazole N-oxide: a recent discovery in organic transformations

• Koustav Singha,
• Imran Habib and
• Mossaraf Hossain

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1575–1588, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.168

• reactions with elemental sulfur [23][24][25], resulting in the generation of non-enolizable imidazole-2-thiones. At first, the alkylation of 2-unsubstituted imidazole N-oxides 40 took place in the presence of an equimolar quantity of benzyl bromide in CH2Cl2 at rt providing the (N-benzyloxy)imidazolium

Vicinal ketoesters – key intermediates in the total synthesis of natural products

• Marc Paul Beller and
• Ulrich Koert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1236–1248, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.129

• as key intermediates for the total synthesis of natural products [1]. Thus, the high electrophilicity of the central carbonyl group in α,β-diketoesters 2 allows the formation of stable hydrates 5. In case of an enolizable position enolization (2→6) is facilitated. The chemistry of vicinal

Organocatalytic asymmetric nitroso aldol reaction of α-substituted malonamates

• Ekta Gupta,
• Narendra Kumar Vaishanv,
• Sandeep Kumar,
• Raja Krishnan Purshottam,
• Ruchir Kant and
• Kishor Mohanan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 217–224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.25

• metal-catalyzed reactions [31][32][33][34][35][36]. The most successful among them are the ʟ-proline-catalyzed reactions of enolizable aldehydes with nitrosoarenes [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Besides ʟ-proline and its derivatives, various secondary amines derived from BINOL and cinchona alkaloids were

Multi-faceted reactivity of N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) under mechanochemical conditions: fluorination, fluorodemethylation, sulfonylation, and amidation reactions

• José G. Hernández,
• Karen J. Ardila-Fierro,
• Dajana Barišić and
• Hervé Geneste

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 182–189, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.20

• are scarce and they have mostly been focused on the fluorinations of enolizable substrates. These considerations led us to explore the behavior of NFSI in fluorinations of activated arenes under ball-milling conditions towards an eventual implementation of mechanochemistry in late-stage C–H

• of 1-acetylindole (5) was found to proceed more efficiently under simultaneous thermal milling conditions. Altogether, the results of this work expand the applicability of NFSI by mechanochemistry beyond fluorination reactions of enolizable substrates and might facilitate the application of NFSI in

N-Sulfinylpyrrolidine-containing ureas and thioureas as bifunctional organocatalysts

• Viera Poláčková,
• Dominika Krištofíková,
• Boglárka Némethová,
• Renata Górová,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2629–2641, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.176

• unit, which should engage in enamine activation of enolizable carbonyl compounds. The urea or thiourea moiety shall provide hydrogen-bond donating ability. Furthermore, these compounds possess a sulfinyl group with an additional stereogenic center on the sulfur. To verify the influence of a matched

Halides as versatile anions in asymmetric anion-binding organocatalysis

• Lukas Schifferer,
• Martin Stinglhamer,
• Kirandeep Kaur and
• Olga García Macheño

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2270–2286, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.145

• proton of the enolizable β-ketoester 49 and thus activating the nucleophilic species. This enolate then adds to the cationic substrate from in situ upon halide abstraction of α-chloro amino acid derivatives 48 by the thiourea moiety of the bifunctional catalyst (Scheme 10c, key intermediate), leading to

Methodologies for the synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via hydroalkylation of unactivated olefins: twenty years of advances

• Thiago S. Silva and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1565–1590, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.112

• developed by Widenhoefer [25][29] relied heavily on the acidity of the carbonyl substrate, and this hampered the use of less enolizable substrates, like alkenyl β-ketoesters. The same group addressed this limitation by proposing the use of trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) as an additive in the intramolecular

• because of the less enolizable character of these compounds. Deuterium incorporation at the olefin terminal carbon was obtained when the deuterated substrate α-13-d2 was subjected to the reaction conditions, indicating the participation of an internal proton source in the putative protodemetalation step

Synthesis of trifluoromethyl ketones by nucleophilic trifluoromethylation of esters under a fluoroform/KHMDS/triglyme system

• Yamato Fujihira,
• Yumeng Liang,
• Makoto Ono,
• Kazuki Hirano,
• Takumi Kagawa and
• Norio Shibata

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 431–438, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.39

• amount of fluoroform was sufficient for this transformation. A wide variety of medicinally attractive aryl and alkyl trifluoromethyl ketones are obtained in good yields by a relatively simple procedure, although the protocol is not applicable to enolizable esters. Fluoroform is an economical feedstock

CF₃-substituted carbocations: underexploited intermediates with great potential in modern synthetic chemistry

• Anthony J. Fernandes,
• Armen Panossian,
• Bastien Michelet,
• Agnès Martin-Mingot,
• Frédéric R. Leroux and
• Sébastien Thibaudeau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 343–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.32

• convenient source of trifluoromethylated iminium ions 187 (Scheme 45) [117][118][119]. Langlois, Billard, and Blond reported on the Mannich-type reaction between silylated trifluoromethylated hemiaminal derivatives 189 [120] and enolizable ketones 188 [121]. The intermediate formation of trifluoromethylated

Reactions of 3-aryl-1-(trifluoromethyl)prop-2-yn-1-iminium salts with 1,3-dienes and styrenes

• Thomas Schneider,
• Michael Keim,
• Bianca Seitz and
• Gerhard Maas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2064–2072, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.173

• reaction of trifluoroacetaldehyde hemiaminals with enolizable carbonyl compounds in the presence of a strong base [23], the reaction of aldiminium salts with (trifluoromethyl)trimethylsilane/Lewis base [24], and the preparation of secondary α-(trifluoromethyl)propargylamines from imines CF3CH=NR and

Stereoselective Biginelli-like reaction catalyzed by a chiral phosphoric acid bearing two hydroxy groups

• Xiaoyun Hu,
• Jianxin Guo,
• Cui Wang,
• Rui Zhang and
• Victor Borovkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1875–1880, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.155

• DHPMs becomes an urgent and paramount task. In connection with this, multicomponent Biginelli and Biginelli-like reactions of aldehydes, urea/thiourea, and enolizable carbonyls revealed as very efficient tools to prepare DHPMs [3]. Although the Biginelli reaction was firstly discovered over a century

• ) H bondings with the enolizable ketone, respectively. This rigid chiral transition-state structure favored the stereoselective attack of the enol on the imine. Once the two hydroxy groups were etherified, the loss of the rigid structure would lead to low enantioselectivity. Additionally, this

One-step route to tricyclic fused 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline systems via the Castagnoli–Cushman protocol

• Aleksandar Pashev,
• Nikola Burdzhiev and
• Elena Stanoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1456–1464, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.121

• for the construction of these heteropolycycles is of great significance to both organic and medicinal chemistry. The Castagnoli–Cushman reaction (CCR) between cyclic enolizable anhydrides (such as succinic (5) [9], glutaric (6) [10], and the corresponding oxygen (7) [11], sulfur (8) [11], and nitrogen

• recrystallization. Compounds comprising a benzo[a]quinolizidine ring system. Representative NOE interactions in cis and trans-21–24 (only one enantiomer is shown). X-ray crystal structure of products 25 and 26. Representative NOE interactions in 28 and 29. Reactions between enolizable anhydrides and imines

Reaction of indoles with aromatic fluoromethyl ketones: an efficient synthesis of trifluoromethyl(indolyl)phenylmethanols using K₂CO₃/n-Bu₄PBr in water

• Thanigaimalai Pillaiyar,
• Masoud Sedaghati and
• Gregor Schnakenburg

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 778–790, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.71

• due to either reducing the electrophilicity of the ketone or the presence of enolizable protons in α-position to the keto group in basic medium. Supporting this hypothesis, the reaction of 1a with 1,1,1-trifluoro-3-phenyl-2-propanone (2l), which has a 3-methylene group also did not proceed at all. The

• interact with the base, thereby initiating the reaction. To find the importance of electrophilicity of ketones, different enolizable and nonenolizable ketones were screened with the reaction of 5-methoxyindole (1a). The enolizable ketones 2j–l failed to provide the products (see Table 2). Similarly

Copper-catalyzed O-alkenylation of phosphonates

• Nuria Vázquez-Galiñanes,
• Mariña Andón-Rodríguez,
• Patricia Gómez-Roibás and
• Martín Fañanás-Mastral

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 611–615, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.56

• triflic acid via decomposition of ethyl triflate. As a limitation, substrates bearing a vinyl substituent or an enolizable ester group did not give any conversion. This methodology is also applicable to other dialkyl phosphonates as illustrated by the synthesis of enol phosphonates 3j, 3k and 3l

A green, economical synthesis of β-ketonitriles and trifunctionalized building blocks from esters and lactones

• Daniel P. Pienaar,
• Kamogelo R. Butsi,
• Amanda L. Rousseau and
• Dean Brady

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2930–2935, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.287

• catalytic amount of isopropanol, or 18-crown-6, was necessary to facilitate the reaction and to reduce side-product formation under ambient conditions. Keywords: acylation; β-ketonitrile; enolizable; trifunctionalized; sustainable; Introduction β-Ketonitriles represent highly versatile intermediates for

• reported as feasible alternatives with varied success and usually a lack of general applicability (e.g., enolizable esters and ketone products may react undesirably under these highly basic reaction conditions). Furthermore, these methods constitute either expensive, less scalable procedures employing an

• , atom-economical ring opening of enolizable δ-valerolactone (3, Scheme 1). Although a two-step (or four-step, should hydroxy group O-protection prove to be necessary prior to acylation) protocol could, in theory, be envisaged to produce β-ketonitrile 2 from 3 by ring-opening esterification to afford